Nantucket Country

Friday

Jun 29, 2007 at 2:00 AM

By Joshua Balling I&M Managing Editor

Amy England is on her way. The singer-songwriter is set to release her second album this week, a lilting, sultry mix of country twang, folk and blues she recorded last fall in Nashville, Tenn. with legendary engineer Bil VornDick. The multiple Grammy winner has worked with artists ranging from bluegrass icons Ralph Stanley and Allison Krauss to folk rock legend Bob Dylan, James Taylor and Bruce Hornsby.

VornDick, who lined up some of the best musicians in Nashville to back England on the new album, called “Nantucket to Nashville,” was also successful in getting five of its songs signed to prominent music publisher Jim Denny, who is working to get them into the hands of artists who currently top the Billboard Country charts.

England, 39, will debut the album at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Unitarian Church on Orange Street.

“I was down in Nashville last fall recording the album and we went straight out,” said England, whose first album, “Heart like Mine,” played nationwide on around 200 National Public Radio and college and community radio stations from WMVY on Martha’s Vineyard to KEXP in Seattle. “I’ve done all-nighters in college, I’ve done double shifts waitressing. But I’ve never worked as hard as we did in the studio. Over the summer, he had me singing two hours a day just to keep up my stamina and my voice. But it was fun. Pretty intense, but fun.”

Working with an engineer of VornDick’s caliber was a thrilling experience, said England, who met him last year at the annual Folk Alliance Conference in Austin, Texas.

“When he met me, and said he would work with me, I was excited and totally in awe,” she said. “Then it was a little bit intimidating, thinking about all the greats he’s worked with. But he was great. I learned a lot from him. He could be kind of stern, and he pressed me a lot. A couple of times I was in my hotel room alone after a long session, and I really missed home. But it was an incredible experience.” “One of Amy England’s greatest strengths,” said VornDick, “is her exceptional songwriting. Depending on different album projects, I listen to hundreds if not thousands of songs, and her songs caught my ear.”

England and VornDick whittled down a list of about 50 songs to the 10 that appear on “Nantucket to Nashville.” They include a mix of Texas dancehall like the up-tempo “Catch and Release,” folk, and even some with Irish and maritime flavor, like “Sweet Sea Clover.”

“It’s definitely not too common, a country music singer from Nantucket,” said England, who grew up in Pound Ridge, N.Y. in a musical family. Her father played the banjo, her mother and grandmother played the piano and her brother, Andrew Hunt, is country recording artist in Brooklyn, N.Y.

“I like to call it Americana. It’s more folky,” said England, who cites Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris as her biggest influences. “I was brought up with a lot of Irish music, and I see a lot of parallels. Also in New England, I’ve been influenced by Nova Scotia and Cape Breton. There’s a lot of fiddle on the CD. ‘Sweet Sea Clover,’ it’s got a real Irish kind of wailing, seafaring flavor to it. But there’s a little bit of variety. There’s not really a theme. I think we were looking for the best. There’s a lot of twang, a lot of country. There’s the Texas dancehall, which I love, and the stuff that shows I’m from Nantucket.”

Most of the songs on the new album were directly influenced by England’s time on the island.

“I really started writing the songs a couple years ago up here. My previous album, about half of it was written before I moved to Nantucket. This one was about 90 percent written here. It’s all really inspired by being on Nantucket.”

While the prospect of hearing her songs sung by one of country’s rising or established stars is a definite possibility, England hasn’t yet quit her day job, although it is now only part-time. The rest is spent, writing, touring and being with her family. She and her husband Peter England have a 3-year-old daughter, Ella.

“It feels fantastic to know that my songs are being shopped to the best singers in country right now. When I was younger, I would have been reluctant to have somebody else sing my songs Now I think it’s great. I think it’s the direction I want to go. With a family, I wouldn’t mind staying in one place a little more these days,” she said.

For now, though, she will work at the Maria Mitchell Association, play a couple of festivals this summer, and embark on a fall and winter tour before heading down to Nashville and Memphis, Tenn. in February.

She never stops writing, but isn’t planning on recording again for at least a year or so. “Usually you have about two years between albums, which seems like a lot, but it’s really not that much time, before you’re supposed to come out with something new,” England said.

“The way I write, it’s whenever it comes to me. I definitely go through dry periods, but it doesn’t really have much to do with what else is going on. When I was down there recording, I wrote a lot because it was so inspiring. It’s hard to write when we’re touring, but that’s inspiring too, so I usually jot down some snippets that might turn into songs later on.”

Denny had nothing but praise for England’s latest record. “The songs she writes convey the emotions behind their inspiration exceptionally well. It’s a trick so few can accomplish. Listening to Amy perform her music, you get a sense that her songs are actual accounts of actual events,” he said. “The undeniable raw magnetism of her voice only serves to make them even more authentic. Musically, she stretches beyond any one genre seemingly without effort.”

Amy England will play songs from her new album, “Nantucket to Nashville,” at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Unitarian Church, 11 Orange St. Her CD is available online at www.amyengland.net and on-island at Bookworks on Broad Street.

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